Original game imageAbout
Artillery Duel is an artillery game written by John Perkins for the Bally Astrocade, first appearing as an Astro BASIC listing in The Arcadian newsletter in 1980 and published by Astrocade Inc. in 1982. Multorio is an online multiplayer artillery duel clone for the Commodore 64, written entirely in BASIC and compiled with the author's MOSpeed BASIC compiler. It requires a WiC64 internet adapter to connect players and will not run without one.
How it differs from the original
Matches are played online between two C64s via the WiC64, and players can pick from eight taunts to send to their opponent each turn. The cannon is drawn in PETSCII characters, so its graphics only roughly reflect the actual firing angle.
Getting started
The included build script compiles the game into two functionally identical program files (one compressed) plus a disk image with the WiC64 routines; the script is Windows-only for now, though the Java-based compiler works elsewhere. There is no lobby or matchmaking: each player enters their own name and their opponent's name, and the two clients find each other. Controls are keyboard-only, with A/D or number keys for the angle, a timed press on the power meter, and wind to account for each round.
Known issues & limitations
- If two pairs of players use the same pair of names at once, both games receive faulty data because of how the server matches clients.
Licensing & legal
- The game is released under the Unlicense, but that does not cover the bundled WiC64 routines or the disk-image tool in the build directory, which keep their own licenses.
